Jefferson Academic Decathlon Team 3rd in Nation!

The Jefferson High School Academic Decathlon team finished third in the national competition held April 16-18 in California. The team earned the opportunity to represent Iowa in the national contest after winning the state contest.

This was the 18th time in the past 19 years that Jefferson has represented the State of Iowa at the national competition. That's nearly two DECADES! The team scored 42,694.1 points, earning 3rd place overall in Division Two, the highest finish by an Iowa team since 2008. Team members also earned 16 total individual medals, a record for an Iowa team. Chase Muenzenmeyer brought home seven individual medals, also an Iowa record. Tommy Waltmann was the highest scorer on the JHS team with 8,165 points. Lauren Brown was named team MVP by a vote of her teammates. Other team members are Gina Buelow, Drake Krambeer, Cora Lassen, Sabrina Martin, and Logan Thompson. The team coach is JHS teacher Kevin Darrow.

Academic Decathlon is a 10-event scholastic competition for teams of high school students. Categories include art history, interview, science, language and literature, music, mathematics, social science, essay, speech, and economics. The theme for the 2014-15 season was New Alternatives In Energy: Ingenuity and Innovation. This year’s Jefferson’s team was made up of eight seniors who began preparing at the beginning of the school year, meeting twice each week.